Stimulative effects of Polygonum amplexicaule var. sinense on osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells

Abstract

Context: Polygonum amplexicaule D. Don var. sinense Forb. (Polygonaceae) (PAF) is a well known traditional herb used to treat some diseases, such as fractures, rheumatoid arthritis, muscle injury, and pain. However, its pharmacological mechanism of promoting the healing of fractures is still unknown.

Objective: The present study was designed to investigate the effects of PAF ethanol extracts on the proliferation and differentiation of osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cell in vitro, thereby to illuminate the pharmacological mechanism to promote the healing of fractures.

Materials and methods: The effects of PAF ethanol extracts on MC3T3-E1 cell proliferation and differentiation were detected by using CCK-8, cell cycle, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂) assays in vitro.

Results: The results showed that PAF ethanol extracts significantly stimulated cell proliferation at 0.1–100 μg/mL and the proportion of cells in S-phase increased from 16.33 to 27.29% in osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells. Moreover, PAF ethanol extracts increased ALP expression in MC3T3-E1 cells at the concentration from 0.1 to 100 μg/mL and inhibited PGE₂ production induced by TNF-α in osteoblasts at the concentrations ranging from 10 to 100 μg/mL in MC3T3-E1 osteoblasts.

Discussion and conclusion: These results indicated that PAF directly stimulates cell proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts; therefore, this study preliminarily explored the pharmacological mechanism of PAF to promote the healing of bone rheumatism and various fractures.

Keywords::

• PAF
• proliferation
• differentiation
• osteoblasts
• pharmacology

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Fund of the Natural Science Foundation of Wuhan City (SZY09005) and Fund for New Century Excellent Talents from Ministry of Education, P.R. China (NCET-07-0336) and Fund for the Natural Science Foundation of SCUEC (CZY10015). The authors are thankful to Professor Dingrong Wan in the Pharmacognosy, the College of Pharmacy, South-Central University for Nationalities to authenticate the herb PAF. The authors are thankful to Dr. Guangzhong Yang for instructing isolation and identification of chemicals.

Declaration of interest

This scientific treatise is an original research, and there is no plagiarism. Biodiversity was not harmed when samples of this medicinal herb were collected.